


When Skies Are Grey

by cold_nights_summer_days



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), Spider-Man - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Angst/Fluff, Author Is Sleep Deprived, Emotional Hurt, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Gen, Hurt Peter Parker, Hurt/Comfort, Ned and MJ are slightly out of character, Peter Parker Has a Bad Day, Peter Parker Has a Family, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Precious Peter Parker, Protective Tony Stark, Shitty Friends, Tony Stark Has A Heart, and writing always helps, author is projecting onto Peter Parker, my bad yall but i had a shitty night, so i hope you enjoy whatever this turned out to be!, vent fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-26
Updated: 2020-10-26
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:41:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,101
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27204691
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cold_nights_summer_days/pseuds/cold_nights_summer_days
Summary: Peter Parker has a Bad Day, and Tony Stark has a revelation.----The force of it threatened to knock him over, and – was this that feeling people always said he wouldn’t understand until he had kids of his own? This pure, unadulterated feeling of love?
Relationships: Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Comments: 4
Kudos: 97





	When Skies Are Grey

**Author's Note:**

> hey guys. it's currently 2 am where I am and I am Not Good. I sincerely hope y'all enoy the fic, and at the very least, know that if you identify with some of this stuff you aren't alone. I, personally, am proud of you for getting this far and think you're doing absolutely amazing. Keep up the wonderful work you funky lil firecracker. 
> 
> (yes, I'm sleep deprived, but that does not make me less genuine!!)
> 
> enjoy, and if there are typos, my sincerest apologies I will fix it later when I am not sad or tired (I guess I could have said never, but where's the fun in that!?)

Tony had gotten a notice from Friday that Peter was in the tower gym. At three in the morning. On a school night. On a night that Peter was supposed to be with May. Tony sighed, tossing away the covers so he could go investigate the situation. He ran through his checklist. Did Peter call? No. Was Peter supposed to be here? Also no. Was Peter hurt? Hopefully not, though Tony assumed Peter wasn’t hurt if he was in the gym. Even for as dense as he can be sometimes, Peter knew that injuries = medbay, not injuries = physical exertion. Or at least, Tony hoped he knew that.

When Tony walked in, he could hear the music coming from Peter’s headphones even across the room. It must be absolutely deafening to the kid, especially with his abilities. _I thought we talked about that,_ Tony thought. _Super loud music and super senses almost always end in sensory overload._ It also meant that Peter wouldn’t hear him coming, and since the two had become comfortable, Peter wouldn’t sense him as a danger, either.

While on his way to Peter, who was beating the living shit out of a punching bag that somehow hadn’t split open yet, Tony picked up on of the foam shields the team used to use in sparring. It wouldn’t totally protect him, but it was better than going in empty handed.

“Hey, Peter,” Tony said, pulling out one of the kid’s earphones. Peter glanced over long enough to see who was there and pull out the other earphone but kept throwing punches. Tony held the foam piece up defensively. The expression on Peter’s face indicated he was definitely not in a good mood.

“Hey,” Peter answered, not stopping.

“What are you doing?”

“Using the punching bag. Did you get new ones? They don’t break as easily as ones I’ve used before.”

“Team of super-people tend to need reinforced equipment, but we aren’t changing the subject. It’s the middle of the night, and a Tuesday. You should be in bed.”

“I think the key word there is “should”. Don’t you have a big meeting in the morning?” Peter asked, trying once again to change the subject. He punctuated each word with a punch, and the last one nearly split the bag. Noticing this, Peter focused his attention on the loose seam.

“Yeah, but I have a possible deranged spider-kid right now. Why don’t you stop assaulting this poor punching bag and come upstairs so we can talk?” Tony suggested. Peter shook his head.

“Why not?”

“Because if I stop punching then I stop being angry and then I start being sad and then I start crying. And between the two of us, I don’t think anyone wants me to start crying.”

Tony tried to wrap his head around the situation, but he didn’t have enough information or coffee in his system to accomplish that. So, he kept asking questions.

“Crying?”

“Yeah,” Peter said, the word coming out more like a sigh than a sentence. Tony studied Peter’s face for a minute and noticed the redness in Peter’s eyes. Had he already cried tonight? It was that or Peter had gotten high, and Tony knew the latter wasn’t possible.

“What happened?”

“I don’t know, Tony. I really don’t know,” Peter finally stopped his assault and leaned tiredly against the punching bag. His eyes slipped closed, but a tear managed to find its way out anyway.

“Why does everyone leave me?” Peter asked, voice so soft and small. Tony swore that he felt his heart break in two. Peter Parker didn’t hurt people, but it seemed that everyone always hurt him. Tony wanted nothing more than to wrap him in a blanket and hide him away from the world, but for now he had to settle for taking off the boxing gloves and taking him upstairs.

“Who left?” Tony asked, gently tugging the gloves off.

“MJ. She just stopped talking to me a few weeks ago and I didn’t know what happened, and then tonight I found out her and Ned had been talking the whole time and—this sounds so stupid doesn’t it?” Peter said, cutting himself off.

“No,” Tony said, shaking his head. “It’s not stupid. What else happened?”

“She just said she didn’t want to be friends with me anymore, but Ned was fine, and Ned didn’t tell me because he didn’t want me to be upset. I don’t even know why she doesn’t want to be friends anymore. They won’t tell me,” Peter said. When he opened his eyes again, they were filled with tears. Tony pulled him into a hug, and Peter instantly buried his head in Tony’s chest.

“I’m sorry,” Tony said.

“It’s not your fault,” Peter mumbled.

“I know, but I’m still sorry that you’re hurting. I’d take it away in a heartbeat if I could, you know that right?”

Peter nodded.

“Good. I kind of understand where you’re coming from, about people leaving you. Some things don’t change, I guess. But if they aren’t willing to stick around, that’s on them. It’s not about you, okay? It doesn’t mean that you’re a bad person, or any of those things.”

“How do you know?” Peter asked. “What if everyone keeps leaving because of me?”

“I know because I know _you_ , Peter. You’re brave, and kind, and god, kid, I’ve never met anyone as kind as you. You let other kids beat you up just so that it isn’t anyone else and—” Tony paused, because in that moment it hit him just how much he loved Peter. The force of it threatened to knock him over, and – was this that feeling people always said he wouldn’t understand until he had kids of his own? This pure, unadulterated feeling of love?

Peter, surprised by Tony’s sudden silence, pulled away to look at him. Tony thought he must have looked so weird in that moment, sleep deprived and smiling like a madman.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” Tony answered, “Yeah, kid, I’m good. I just – I love you, Peter. Don’t ever forget that. And before you can say it, because I already sense it coming, I’m never going to leave you behind. They’ll have to drag me away kicking and screaming – or god forbid, dead—for that to happen.”

A fresh round of tears made their appearance, and Tony wiped them away with the end of his sleeve.

“I love you too,” Peter said quietly. Tony once again felt that his heart might split in two, but this time from all the love he wasn’t sure it could actually hold.

**Author's Note:**

> As always, I love you all and hope that you have a wonderful day/night/week/month until I see you all again!
> 
> For anyone who's here after reading my homeless Peter Parker au, that fic will get a continutation in the form of comfortember!! I'll try to do as many prompts as possible, but I haven't decided whether I'll be doing the whole month or not. 
> 
> If you want to read more, check out my [page](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cold_nights_summer_days/works) and my [tumblr!/a>](https://funky--lil--spider.tumblr.com/)
> 
> Also, I've opened my comissions if you'd be interested in that!
> 
> [Support me on Ko-Fi, or commission a fic!](https://ko-fi.com/cold_nights_summer_days)


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